SA funeral parlour sends wrong body to Zimbabwe

Published: 2016 January 18 08:15:04 (8905 Views)

An alleged mix up by a funeral parlour in South Africa meant that a woman's body was given to another family, who buried her in Zimbabwe.

Natasha Chando's grieving family from Zimbabwe had just finished a church service for their dead sister at the funeral parlour's chapel. They asked for the body so that they could give her a decent burial.

But to their horror, Natasha's body wasn't there. Chaos soon erupted in Johannesburg's Braamfontein CBD as the angry family confronted the owner of the funeral parlour.

Police were called to calm the family members at Today's Hope funeral parlour.

Natasha's brother, Rico Chando, said the family arrived at the funeral parlour at noon on Friday to take the body for burial over the weekend.

"After the service it was time to view the body before taking it. But we were told her body wasn't there." Rico said the funeral parlour management first gave them the wrong body.

"We demanded the body of my sister, but one of the senior managers told us that the body was mistakenly taken a day before by another family who identified it as theirs and that she had already been buried."